The present invention relates generally to wire slicing machines and more particularly, to automatically building a wire field in a wire slicing machine for use in performing slicing operations.
In a typical wire slicing machine, an operator manually builds the wire field that is used in performing the slicing operations. In particular, the operator begins by physically taking wiring that has been loaded onto a wire spool using his or her hand or a weighted device and winds the wire around a first groove formed in three or four wire guides integrated into the wire slicing machine. The operator then makes another loop around the wire guides by placing the wire in the next adjacent set of grooves using his or her hand or the weighted device to maintain tension on the wire and prevent the wire from unwinding. The operator continues making loops of the wire around the subsequent grooves until a wire field has been built around the wire guides. Winding a wire field in a wire slicing machine in this manner is labor intensive and can take anywhere from thirty minutes up to four hours and even skilled operators can still end up with a wire field that does not have proper tension or has some damage due to handling. Improper tension can eventually affect the capability of the wire slicing machine to perform slicing operations on workpieces and possibly lead to an interruption in production.